SEMC receives national recognition from American College of Surgeons

The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program has recognized St. Elizabeth Medical Center for excellence in surgical patient care.

Out of 374 hospitals in the United States that participate in the ACS NSQIP, St. Elizabeth is one of 37 hospitals that have achieved meritorious outcomes for surgical patient care, according to a news release.

As a participant in ACS NSQIP, St. Elizabeth is required to track the outcomes of inpatient and outpatient surgical procedures and collect data that directs patient safety and the quality of surgical care improvements, according to the release.

The ACS NSQIP commends a select group of hospitals for achieving meritorious outcomes related to patient management in nine clinical areas — mortality, unplanned intubation, ventilator for more than 48 hours, renal failure, deep vein thrombosis, thrombophlebitis and pulmonary embolism; cardiac incidents; respiratory; surgical site infections and urinary tract infection. St. Elizabeth Medical Center was awarded the distinction based on outstanding outcomes in these areas, based on data from the July ACS NSQIP semiannual report, which presents data from the 2012 calendar year, according to the release.

“The ACS NSQIP is an important part of our surgical quality improvement program. It enables us to compare our surgical outcomes with hospitals all across the country, taking into account patients’ overall health and surgical risk. We are extremely proud that the American College of Surgeons has found that our results for 2012 place us in the top 10 percent of the almost 400 hospitals participating in the program. This is a reflection of the outstanding physicians, nurses and technicians who work in our surgical services program,” said Dr. Albert D’Accurzio, vice president and chief medical officer at St. Elizabeth, in the release.